What Amount Would It Take To Get You Out Of Debt?

[DAII]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

It's called age.

I'd much rather be 20 and be in hock up to my eyeballs.

Be glad to trade.

Words of wisdom

[johnny44]

Originally Posted by Apprehended

You are right about that, young'un.

btw, you are still a young'un compared to ME...

When the wife and I got married, Mr. Macho decided he was going to handle all the bills.

Bad idea!

A big night out for us two love birds was to go to the drive in on a Saturday night, order two hamburgers and share a milk shake. That came to $3.00 total. We didn't know we were poor because we were too much in love. Our rent was $50.00 a month which included gas and water. .

Our rent was $25 a month I made about $50 aweek.I won't use the word "lucky",but good for you on choice for your wife .I don't know how many Target stores my wife built!

[ILG]

I don't care for the question.

Maybe it should be worded "How much bad debt do you have?"

Good debt is debt that makes you get cash flow. For example, if you owned a million dollar apartment complex, you might owe $800,000 on it but have a great income from it.

On the flipside, if you have $60,000 in credit card debt spent on worthless junk, you have bad debt.

Are student loans good or bad debt? Is your mortgage a good or bad debt?

Generally, anything that increases cash flow is good debt.

[Digging4Truth]

Originally Posted by ILG

I don't care for the question.

Maybe it should be worded "How much bad debt do you have?"

Good debt is debt that makes you get cash flow. For example, if you owned a million dollar apartment complex, you might owe $800,000 on it but have a great income from it.

On the flipside, if you have $60,000 in credit card debt spent on worthless junk, you have bad debt.

Are student loans good or bad debt? Is your mortgage a good or bad debt?

Generally, anything that increases cash flow is good debt.

I have no desire to disagree with you.

But in my world (which affects me and my family alone) there is no good debt. And if the dollar crashes, which I firmly believe it will, even "good debt" will go bad.

Let me add this. The only "good debt" I would see is the purchase of a home but even in that people most often put themselves in more debt than was necessary. But, then again, this is strictly speaking of my world. Not anyone elses.

But my house is mortgage free so I don't have to sweat that now.

[ILG]

I hope to get more into debt soon with something that produces cash flow. The reason for this is not only is cash flow good, but interest rates are set to rise and the days of cheap borrowing are soon to be over. Although I think paying off debt is a good goal, I think getting into good debt is better yet.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...irhaydari.aspx

[Digging4Truth]

Originally Posted by johnny44

Our rent was $25 a month I made about $50 aweek.I won't use the word "lucky",but good for you on choice for your wife .I don't know how many Target stores my wife built!

If a man desires to be debt free and his wife shares the same vision this man will die trying to finish count his blessings.

The two greatest enemies of fiscal responsibility are husbands and wives and it seems every marriage has a few.

[ILG]

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth

I have no desire to disagree with you.

But in my world (which affects me and my family alone) there is no good debt. And if the dollar crashes, which I firmly believe it will, even "good debt" will go bad.

I believe the dollar will crash too. Who knows when. But we may have some huge inflation first. Say you buy a house in this depressed market for $75,000. You have payments of $575.00 a month, say, and you get $700.00 a month. This gives you a cash flow of $125.00 per month. Then, we get inflation. Everything goes up including interest rates. You got this place at 5.5% interest. Interest rates on housing jumps to 12%. Housing goes up. The government places housing controls on and says you can't rent for anymore than $800.00 per month. You can afford it. Nobody else can.

Instead of paying down debt, you buy silver at $30.00 an ounce. It goes to $50.00. You have $20.00 more an ounce than when you started.

[Digging4Truth]

Originally Posted by ILG

I believe the dollar will crash too. Who knows when. But we may have some huge inflation first. Say you buy a house in this depressed market for $75,000. You have payments of $575.00 a month, say, and you get $700.00 a month. This gives you a cash flow of $125.00 per month. Then, we get inflation. Everything goes up including interest rates. You got this place at 5.5% interest. Interest rates on housing jumps to 12%. Housing goes up. The government places housing controls on and says you can't rent for anymore than $800.00 per month. You can afford it. Nobody else can.

Instead of paying down debt, you buy silver at $30.00 an ounce. It goes to $50.00. You have $20.00 more an ounce than when you started.

Your plan seems to have a running assumption that you will always be able to make the payments and that you will have renters. Also... and this is just me sharing how I see it from my side... $75,000 worth of debt over $125 per month? And that is before taxes... upkeep... insurance... tax on the income etc and then one month without a renter eats up about 5 months of income.

I just can't see debt as a money maker although it is the American way.


Side note... I started buying silver when it was $7 per ounce. I wish I would have bought more.

[missourimary]

Hmmm... I need to pay more attention to the silver market.

I hope the interest rates do go up. But there is little way to know what the market is going to do-other than falter-with government involvement. I only know that savings interest can't go much lower. Rentals don't work for many people. Renters can be very destructive, and unless a person can find extraordinary renters or can make all major repairs themselves, rentals don't seem to make much money. On the other hand, my mortgage payment was $500/mo including taxes and insurance. I could rent my house now for $700-900/mo... a $200-400 profit every month even if I still owed. $2400/year isn't much once I consider repairs. $4800 is worth thinking about. At that rate it would only take 10-15 years to recoup every dime I now have invested in the property, if it were continuously rented and there were minimal repairs needed.

As far as the question being misleading... I would have liked to answer over $100,000 to the question. My life doesn't need to be "turned around" by decreasing my debt. However, it would improve dramatically if I was given around $300,000-not to decrease my debt but to increase my savings. Then I could semi-retire.

[Michlow]

I don't like this poll! I have worked very hard to live a debt free lifestyle, but I had to choose the $100,000 plus!

I owe $111,000 on my house. This wasn't so bad a few years ago, when I had a good bit of equity in it. Now It would cost me money to sell it!

I have no car loans, and no credit card debt.

I did however get $3200 in Medical Bill Debt as a package deal when I got married.